Saturday, 3 December 2016

The theme this month is a review of 2016 so I thought I would pick some of my personal Stampin Up highlights along with photos of some of my favourite makes. If you don't want to read it all feel free to scroll thru the pictures - I'll never know lol !

The year started on a high as during January I finally managed to achieve my promotion to the Silver Elite title, something I had been working towards for a while and it was a very special day as there were others celebrating achievements on the same day too.

In April, it was the OnStage Local event at Telford and the first time I had qualified to attend the CentreStage evening for leaders.

I was also very flattered to be asked to be a Display Stamper and make some samples for the display boards, which meant I got to play with some brand new ( and top secret ) products ! We had to make 20 items, a mixture of cards, scrapbook pages and 3D projects but due to a shipping delay we only had 3 weeks to get them ready. Here are a few of my favourite makes......

Seems ages since my girls were this tiny - the eldest will be 18 at Christmas!

And I got to walk across the stage and spend some very valued time with the rest of the team....

And we had so much fun we did it all again in November....

And saw some gorgeous new products, which will be available very soon.

Throughout the year I have continued my weekly Wednesday classes and monthly Card and a Cuppa events. I really enjoy the company of my class ladies, some of whom have been coming for over 5 years now, and it has also been nice to welcome some new faces.

Here are some of our projects......

And my favourite stamp set of the year ? Got to be this cutie ...

I've also started doing some Crafternoon Tea events at a local tea room- crafting AND cake, what more could a girl want ?

Also, just last week I got the opportunity to travel to the UK office in High Wycombe and take part in the Christmas Cheer Challenge, a charity event for Ronald McDonald House. The aim was to make 100 cards each during the day and it was a fantastic team effort and we made over 800 !!

And after almost 29 years with the same employer I had the opportunity to take Voluntary Redundancy and so am hoping to extend my SU activities even further next year. Exciting times ahead ....

I hope you can see the many ways that SU has enriched my life and if you would like to get involved , please get in touch as I would be so pleased to welcome you to my team ..... and there may be a fantastic joining offer soon 😉

Everybody needs a dose of SU Magic- it's so much more than stamps and ink ! x

Saturday, 5 November 2016

This month the theme is Christmas decorations which is quite ironic as I will be spending the day with lots of other lovely demonstrators finding out about the fabulous new goodies coming up in the Spring / Summer catalogue !! Can't believe we are thinking about next Spring already but there will definitely be a lot of excited oohs and aahs today !

Anyway back to the Christmas decorations.... I've been playing with some of the more sparkly products which ,anyone who knows me well will know , is quite difficult for me as I have a bit of a phobia about glitter.

The sentiment in this picture has been embossed with red glitter embossing powder, not sure if you can see how much it sparkles......

And I've also decorated some ceramic baubles and used some of the glimmer paper - I can cope with this better as there are less stray flakes lol !

Just realised the Holly, jolly one is minus it's holly ! Oh well, it's too dark now to take another photo and I have a suitcase to pack but I think you get the idea.

Hope you enjoy the weekend as much as I will ..... and it is rumoured I may even be wearing a glittery hat !

Saturday, 3 September 2016

September brings back to school, X Factor and Strictly, cooler autumnal days and of course, the Autumn and Winter Seasonal catalogue ! And that's our focus for this month's hop - the countdown to Christmas really has begun !

I decided to use the new Cookie Cutter bundle as the focus for my projects. This is a fab photopolymer stamp set with a very clever matching punch for only £31.50. I am running an All Day Class using these products as they are so versatile.

Isn't it clever how the reindeer is an upside down version of the Cookie Cutter shape ?

The gorgeous paper is from the Candy Lane suite and the little house is cut directly from a sheet ful of houses so there is opportunity to make plenty of cards.

And the sweet little bear would be perfect for baby cards too - not just for Christmas !

And finally this is a photo frame I purchased for 25p......

And decided to 'Stampy-upify ' to make it Christmassy.......

Check out those tiny little jingle bells, love them.

Hope you enjoyed my first batch of projects from the new catalogue and if anything caught your eye you can purchase directly from my online store www.juliewade.stampinup.net or get in touch

Now continue with the Hop and enjoy what the other Jems have to show you

Tuesday, 16 August 2016

Here's the first of my cards made using the colour challenge combination. I saw a gorgeous 'How much is that doggy in the window ' card by Sandy Hancock at www.sandystamps.com and knew I wanted to recreate it.

Bella and Friends is a very cute set and works perfectly teamed with the Hearth and Home dies to make the window and the Brick Wall embossing folder is so versatile . If you would like any more details about any of these products please ask or take a look at my online store www.juliewade.stampinup.net

Cute isn't it ? I'd love to see some of your makes using this colour combination so pop over to my Facebook page and leave me a photo in the comments x

Monday, 15 August 2016

Morning all, and it looks like it's going to be a beautiful day ! I'm waiting in this morning for my new Christmas goodies to be delivered so I may be crafting outside in the sunshine later !

I'm often asked about colour combinations so I thought I would try a little challenge this week, please feel free to join in.

The colours I've chosen are Soft Sky, Whisper White, Night of Navy and Tip Top Taupe.....

Pop back during the week and I will show you what I've made with them but please feel to use these colours ( or something similar ) and pop over to my Facebook page ( link on the side) and leave a comment with a photo of your makes - I might even pick a random winner and send out a small prize

Saturday, 6 August 2016

You could be forgiven for thinking I had disappeared off the face of the earth, but things have just been a little hectic. I had a lovely holiday in Florida but came home to find the tank in the loft had leaked through the upstairs ceiling , through the carpets and down through the ceiling downstairs too ! It has affected several rooms and we are still awaiting the schedule of works to put it all right, BUT on the positive side, my craft room was unaffected !!

The theme of today's Blog Hop is boxes/gift packaging and the first of my projects is a little gift box for a hand sanitizer. I bought one of these for all my class ladies on holiday and then in this weeks class they had to make their own packaging lol ! The shop had lots of different 'flavours' to choose from but I knew I wanted to use my Fresh Fruit stamps so I purchased lots of Fresh Strawberries (and a few others for myself). It's a good job I didn't get stopped by Customs- they may have wondered why I needed $50 of hand sanitizer !

Saturday, 2 July 2016

Firstly, I need to apologise for the lack of blog posts. No excuses, I've just been really busy and unfortunately the blog gets put on the 'tomorrow ' list - every day lol.
I can't see things changing for the next few weeks but after that I think things will settle down and I hope to get into a regular routine.

The theme for this month's hop is animals so of course I immediately reached for Baby Bear !
I teamed it with the easel stamp from Painter's Palette, another new favourite that I have lots of plans for....

Isn't she sweet ? And Sweet Sugarplum too. You may have noticed I've got a bit of a thing about making my own paper at the moment, this time I used the flower and leaf from the Jar of Love set. This set is so versatile and there are loads of lovely elements apart from the jars.

I haven't added a sentiment to this card yet, and it would make a very sweet baby card but I know a lovely little girl who has a birthday coming soon,

Today is also a sort of birthday/anniversary for me too as it was exactly 6 years ago today that I became a Stampin Up demonstrator. How time flies when you are having fun ! I can honestly say I am so glad I did - I still love all the gorgeous products but have also made some special friends, so a big thank you to Julie Kettlewell and all the Jems for all their support.

If you have any questions about joining Stampin Up please get in touch, I would love you to join my team. Now, please continue the Hop and checkout all the inspiring projects from the other Jems

Monday, 6 June 2016

Hello all, hope you've had chance to enjoy the sunshine again today, it's been very hot here.

I've now received all my On Stage Local display samples back so I thought I would show you them together. My ' mission ' was to showcase the old In Colours ( yep, I was gutted not to get the new ones lol ! ) and we had to make a variety of projects predominantly that colour.

This was particularly difficult for me - I like my colour combos - and using one main colour was a lot more challenging than it initially sounds. Anyway, here's what I came up with for Tip Top Taupe....

A scrapbook page of my two girls and an anniversary card with Timeless Love.

Isn't that die cut heart just so pretty ? My faux book you've seen before.

A close up of the scrapbook page....yes, it is that flower from Fabulous Flora again ! And look at those cute frilly socks - my now teenagers would just roll their eyes !

Saturday, 4 June 2016

Hello there, did you enjoy the Jems Blog Hop yesterday ? Some great ideas and really it showcased the new In Colours.

Firstly a little background info about today's card. On Friday afternoon I was home alone and as the weather was unexpectedly hot I decided to be self indulgent and sunbathe in the garden. Despite the glorious weather and wearing my shorts, I suddenly had an idea for a card....but a Christmas card. Initially, I thought I must remember that for a few months time, but, after about 5 minutes I decided I NEEDED to make it - now ! Does that ever happen to you lol ?

After I'd made it I shared it with my team mates and then posted it on a Demonstrator Facebook group. The response was overwhelming, I got over 540 likes and some lovely comments ! In fact I put something in the microwave for 3 minutes and when I came back I had notifications of 50 more likes !

So I thought I'd better share with you too..... Get ready , he is sooo cute.....

See, told you- isn't he just so sweet ?

If you haven't got the Baby Bear set you can order him at www.juliewade.stampinup.net and I have 'dressed' him with items from the equally cute Snow Place Christmas stamp set. The sentiment and accessories are also from a new Christmas set called Peace this Christmas. I also have lots of other ideas for him, so expect lots more bear designs.

I shall be making a batch of Christmas bears in the sunshine again today. Hope you like him x

Hello and welcome to the 2nd Jems Blog Hop, we had so much fun last time , we're doing it all again !

This time the theme is the new Stampin Up In Colours.

I love playing around with colour combinations and like how the colours change the mood of a project. For today's Hop I decided to make a card for each of the 5 new In Colours but to keep the other colours the same. So I decided that Mint Macaron and Tip Top Taupe would work with each of the colours, what do you think ?

The first one is Flirty Flamingo......

The butterfly has been stamped with a gorgeous flower from the new hostess set Fabulous Flora.

Next on to Emerald Envy.......

And on to Peekaboo Peach....

And Dapper Denim......

And finally, and probably my favourite version of this particular card, Sweet Sugarplum...

About Me

Hii, my name is Julie. I am married with two beautiful teenage daughters and love spending my spare time making my own little paper masterpieces !
I am an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator in the South Staffs/West Midlands area and I would be happy to place any orders for you, discuss hosting a workshop or becoming a demonstrator. Please feel free to email me at mrsjuliewade@sky.com - I'd love to hear from you !!!